Tag: novel

I’ve been doing final edits on my collection of short stories, The Garden of Earthly Delights. These stories are inspired by the extraordinary paintings and drawings of the Flemish artist Hieronymus Bosch. They will be winging their way in search of a publisher now.

And I’ll be getting on to other writing projects – developing a second novella, then pulling out the beginnings of a novel that I birthed doing NaNoWriMo, to see if that is going anywhere.

Meanwhile I’ll write flash pieces as and when.

Good luck with all your writing. What we call the ‘real’ world seems to be going crazy – I believe that writing and reading is part of our salvation.

Alongside thousands of other people round the world, I’ve signed up to write a novel in a month during November. The aim is 50,000 words and on day 18 I’m at 28,103, so I’m confident I can reach the target by the 30th.

This is not a competition, except insofar as any of us are competing with ourselves. I’m doing it because it’s a great kick up the backside to do something I’ve always said to date I’d never do!!!

So, here’s what I can tell you about my novel. The title is There is a Shape to Everything. Here’s what I wrote as a synopsis when I started:

Mother Miriam and daughter Sylvana travel to Kathmandu to celebrate their 50th and 21st birthdays respectively by taking a trek in the Himalayas together.

Before they set off on the trek there is an earthquake and mother disappears. Sylvana pairs up with Vic, a Nepali maker of thangkas (Tibetan Buddhist paintings) whose son Prem has also disappeared. Together they travel in search of Miriam and Prem.

Back home in Wales, Tritta, a friend of Sylvana’s, receives messages from both her and Miriam which set her off on a journey of her own.

Tritta has not put in much of an appearance, but various other characters have, including a man with a scar in the shape of a snake on his forehead. He’s obviously a baddie…

And the imagery in the Buddhist paintings is pretty important, that’s for sure.

Buddhist painting, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, Kathmandu.

Photo: Cath Barton

Story snippets

“The phone ringing will wake you in the night. You’ll answer it but there’ll be no-one there. Just a cat miaouing.” From Baby

“I blink and he’s standing there, just for a minute. Glitter lands on my shoes. I blink. He’s gone.” From Clown